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VOLUME VI.
PO-&TTuJLNX, OREGON, FB1DAY, MA.Y SC, XSW.
NUMBER ST.
Terms.
EDNA AND JOHN:
A Romance of Idaho Flat.
Br Mrs. A. J. DUNIWAY,
author qt "juurrn beid," "kllen dowd,'
"AMIS AND HKNBY LEE," "THE HAPPY
HOME," "ONE WOMAN'S SPHERE,"
"MADGE MORRISON,"
KTC, ETC., ETC
Entered, according to Act of Congress, In the
year 1876, by Mrs. A. J. Dnnlway, in the office of
the Librarian of Congress at Washington City.
"Woman's degraded, helpless position is the
weak point of onr institutions to-day a dis
turbing force everywhere, severing family ties,
filling our asylums with the deal, the dumb,
the blind, our prisons with criminals, our cit
ies with drunkenness and prostitution, our
homes with disease and death. National Cen
tennial Equal Rights Protest.
CHAPTER XXIIL
The Territory of Idaho bad recently
been judicially districted, and Circuit
Court was now to bold its opening ses
sion in Idaho Flat.
Several young lawyers who bad strug
gled long with legal technicalities in
their, at last, successful endeavor to be
admitted to the bar in the States, and
who had struggled longer with less suc
cessful effort to obtain clients in their
native haunts, had recently come to
dispute possession with Mr. Brief, while
older lawyers, broken-down politicians,
ex-judges badly out of date, governmen
tal employes, and not a few men of
more than ordinary ability, as brains
go, but badly deficient In purse and
public appreciation, flocked hither and
thither in the Territory to prey upon
the cupidity and credulity of those who
might have needed justice, but they
seldom got it wben appealing to the
law.
"Be composed," said a lawyer once to
a client on trial for grand larceny. "No
doubt you will be treated justly."
"Faith, sir, and justice Is the very
thing I'm afraid of," returned the Hi
bernian, who, bad he been a native
American, would have felt little fear on
that score.
Several of the new Territorial officials
brought their families to Idaho Flat,
and society began to assume some of
the phases of older civilization, though
there was yet one sad drawback to mor
ality among the majority of men, and
that was nothing less than the soarclty
of good women.
Nature always seeks an equilibrium.
When humanity interferes with the
equalization of masculine and feminine
forces by removing the restraining in
fluence of one sex from the other in any
of the departments of life, from the do
mestic to the educational, social or re
ligious to the legal and governmeutal,
the channels of life become vitiated,
and nature, in the only effort left her to
restore the equilibrium thus disturbed,
will send bad women where the good
are not plenty, and the feet of her whose
"steps take hold on hell" will too often
lead the unwary into pitfalls of his own
creating, to hold him captive ever after
at her will.
Idaho Flat became the rendezvous of
abandoned women who were bent upon
spoils. Money was plenty, for gold
abounded in the river beds, and gold and
silver was in the gorges and on the very
mountain tops.
Mrs. Kutneriord, wholly unaccus
tomed to the vice and immorality that
flourished before her eyes, was thor
oughly horrified with what transpired
daily. "Women whom older and more
settled society would have sent to jail
for lewdness, flaunted tbeir silks and
jewels before her face and seated them
selves at table to be fed like queens.
"I wouldn't stand it, Edna!" she ex
claimed In indignation, as these people
multiplied In tbeir midst.
"I make the bread and clothing and
shelter for all of us by feeding the men
who support them, mother. They are
just as good as any man who visits
them."
"But I will order the very next bad
woman out of doors who comes here to
get her dinner. I'll have no such bag'
gage arouna."
"Then I will order every man away
who is seen in tbeir company, mother.
Bid you notice the costly diamond ring
that one of them sported this morning?
That was presented her by a govern
ment official who pays me a round price
for board his board and hers. That
man is feasted and feted in the best
Washington society every winter. He
has a big salary with perquisites, and
leaves bis poor dupe of a wife at some
obscure country Tillage every summer,
while he comes home to bis constitu
ents, to lobby for re-appointment and
run with fast women, who are as good
as himself, bad as they are. You turn
the woman out and I will dismiss the
man, and then, if this thing is carried
out, we'll see where our bread and but
ter comes from."
But mother and daughter were spared
the necessity of putting their design
into execution.
It was autumn now, and the Circuit
Court was in session, giving many
lawyer an opportunity to turn an hon
est hundred or two by attending to the
disputed claims, real and imaginary, of
opposing miners, who, now that chances
for going to law abounded, were not
low in taking legal steps to overreach
r underreach their neighbors in any
ray that was legally possible.
Edna, was busy to her Tery eyes in the
kitchen, dining-room, and everywhere.
Her Mongolian help had found the work
too bard for him wben Court met, and,
wben increasing crowds of men mate
rially increased the kitchen efforts, had
taken French leave and no other help
was to be had.
The harvest that Circuit Court brings
is never to be despised by the inn or
boarding-bouse keeper of a country
town, and those engaged in that busi
ness in Idaho Flat were no exception to
the general rule.
"We have heavy bills to meet, mother,
and I am depending upon this harvest
season to pay for our winter's wood and
lights, and many other necessaries that
must come. I wantto build an addition
to the bouse, also, and I oan't afford to
turn away a single boarder, so we must
make bay while the sun shines. Every
body's money will help us along, so
don't be squeamish, but just help me
out this month and we'll get several
hundreds ahead."
Mrs. Rutherford and Sue Randolph
each heeded the advice thus freely
given, and the hotel became a place of
gaiety and noise and money changing,
which Edna would never have con
sented for it to become had she been
permitted by her legal bead, or even ad
vised by her minister, to keep up legiti
mate and wholesome amusements of
the intellectual character that she had
at first inaugurated.
But, as we have said, she was busy to
her eyes in work. In all the married
years of her life she had not felt so free
and happy. Business was unusually
brisk, even for a mining town. There
were many intellectual legal gentlemen
in attendance at the Court, and though
her time was all taken up with her cull
nary cares, she managed to keep herself
and children tidy and apparently com
fortable, so that she was ready at any
moment for a brilliant sally of wit or a
brief dissertation upon legal technicali
ties, mining stocks, theology, philoso
phy, or recipes for cooking.
The county sheriff was a very import
ant personage in Idaho Flat. He was
short and obese, with a thick neck and
fleshy jaws set squarelj upon shoulders
slightly rounded, and he carried a pair
of flabby fat bauds with the digits in
bis pantaloons pockets and the stubby
thumbs protruding awkwardly. From
the day that Edna bad first met him he
bad been her pet aversion. True, bis
habits were more correct and his con
duct more circumspect than that of her
boarders in general, but there was an
air of selfishness, and a want of fine
sensibility about bim that was particu
larly offensive to her feelings.
He had a habit of making broad as
sertions that were generally as wide of
the truth as they were broad in utter
ance, and clinching the same by a coarse
guffaw that would silence, though It al
ways failed to convince, those holding a
different opinion.
"I have a document in my possession
that particularly concerns you, Mrs.
Smith," he exclaimed, as, thrusting his
burly figure Inside the kitcnen, he
broke into a loud ha ! ha 2 ha I
"A document concerning me.'" cried
Edna, rubbing the flour from her bands,
and reaching to take the paper from his
pudgy digits and pudgier thumb.
"I wonderif John isn't applying fora
divorce?" she asked herself, and then
came the pleasing reflection that di
vorces were easy to obtain iu Idaho
Flat.
But Edna did not comprehend the
import of the mysterious document. It
was loaded down with the ambiguous
technicalities that usually overshadow
papers of its ilk, and after a moment's
reflection she looked enquiringly at the
officer for an explanation, while a dark
foreboding, as undefined as dismal,
crept into her heart.
"It's a writ of ejection from these
premises by old Sol, the saloon-keeper.
Hal hal ha!" said the legal protector
of women,
"I don't see how that can be," replied
JMina, turning deathly pale. "I never
owed him a dime in my life."
"But, madam, John Smith and Mr.
Brief have been boarding at bis chebang
all summer on the strength of John's
claim upon this business. You'll have
to liquidate. Ha! ha! ha!"
"But I shan't" exclaimed Edna,
"So there."'
The guffaw that followed was so exas
perating that Edna refrained with dlffl
culty from belaying the officer with her
rolling-pin. But she felt instinctively
that she was at the mercy of the law,
and wisely held herself in restraint,
"You see," he continued, "John had
to have some place to stay, and when
you turned mm out be went over to
Sol's, and as be had no money, he gave
bis note. Mr. Brief has been his coun
selor all along, and John gave bim bis
note of band also. Ha ! ba ! ha 1"
"Stop that guffawing, or I'll dash
your brains out!" cried Ednak in
frenzy of Indignation that made th
sheriff fairly tremble,
"Brief sold the note to Sol," he con
tinued, sobering down, "and Sol got
judgment on this property, and the
cheapest thing you can do is to get out."
"But John bas never raised a finger
to earn a dollar here. Everything i
the house and about it belongs to me.
"That's the very reason you don'town
it, madam. If you weren't a wife now !
But you are, you see, and everything
you own Isn't yours at all, but your
husband's. If you'd been sh up, you1
have let everything be held in the name
of Sue Randolph, or your mother, for
both of them are without husbands, and
they cau hold property, you see. Ha !
a! ha!"
"My mother has often said that wom
an's degraded, helpless position is the
weak point in our institutions to-day.
She says it is a disturbing force every
where, severing family ties, filling our
sylums with victims, our prisons with
criminals, our towns and cities with
prostitution, our homes with disease
and death. I never saw the force of
this abominable truth as I see it now. I
have tolled like a galley slave to build
up and sustain this business and main
tain myself and children. It bas not
occurred to me once this summer that
my being a wife by a fiction of law, un
der which I have found no protection,
would render it necessary for me to put
my earnings into other hands than my
own for safe keeping, else I would have
done it and defied the law. As It Is, I
am powerless. But what am I to do?"
"Just what this writ advises, madam.
You are to vacate the premises at once,
to satisfy the judgment."
"Leave my house this minute, sir!"
said Edna, folding the paper and resum
ing her rolling-pin. "You can't put me
out under a writ of ejectment under
thirty days after having given ten days'
notice. I know a few things about law
when I stop to think of them, if I am a
woman."
"Sol'll be madder'n thunder!" solilo
quized the sheriff, as be waddled away
to carry the news to him and Mr. Brief
and John.
"How strange that I should have been
so blind!" thought Edna. "I knew, or
might have known, that John Smith,
as my husband, could commit no recog
nized or punishable crirue by robbing
me of my earnings; but here I have
been toiling and accumulating for
months as though unconscious of exist
ing facts. Luckily I have a few hun
dred dollars hidden away. I intended to
use that money toward liquidatingbills;
but Sol, or whoever gets the house, may
do that. I'll save all I can during the
next thirty days."
Her resolve thus taken was followed
for a week, and then came a legal in
junction forbidding the boarders to pay
tbeir bills to Edna, and there was no al
ternative but to lose the result of her
summer's toil and begin preparinganew
n the autumn for the near approach of
rigorous winter.
"When the Lord loveth He chasten-
th," said Mr. Handel, with a sancti
monious air, as soon as he learned the
facts.
'I should say that whom the devil
despiseth he destroyeth," was Edna's
prompt rejoinder.
I am sorry, my dear madam, that
ou do not accept your trials In a meek
and quiet spirit," observed the preacher.
"And I am surprised that you are such
consummate fool!" was the impulsive
retort.
"Whatt"
Mr. Handel would have been scarcely
less surprised had the heavens fallen.
He had long felt it his pastoral duty to
call upon Edna once or twice in every
week, and had never failed to share her
hospitable board. She had always be
fore been passably courteous, despite
some of her betrodox vagaries, of which
he constantly warned her.
"I've done what I could to keep you
iu the straight and narrow path, Mrs,
Smith, but I find you constantly drift
ing upon the breakers. You know what
the Scripture saith. He that, being of
ten reproved, bardeneth his neck, shall
suddenly be distroyed, and that without
mercy."
"Leave the house this minute with
your mocking cant!" exclaimed Edna.
Indeed, she was nearly crazed, and no
wonder.
Let any reader of these pages who
would chide her put himself in her place
and see if bis human nature would not
instantly rebel. It is very easy, always,
to bear other people's troubles with for
titude. It is our own that come to us to
stay.
"Awful as a divorce is, Edna, you will
be compelled to get one, or starve," said
Mrs. Rutherford, while the thought that
her beloved daughter, in whom she had
so long indulged more pride and antici
pation than in all else in the world,
would be that loathsome thing, a "grass
widow," was enough of itself to pros
trate her on a bed of sickness.
Another week elapsed, and Edna,
with her mother, Sue Randolph, and
three little children, was again en
sconced in the diminutive cabin where
she had begun her struggle for bread
when she had first settled with Aunt
Judy in Idaho Flat.
"Men are constantly placing a pre
mium upon crime," said Edna, bitterly,
"See how much better off a fallen worn
is than tbe wife of a bad man,
Those courtesans you were complaining
of, mother, are safely housed and fed
In the very hotel from which I, though
tolling sixteen hours out of twenty-four,
to keep it going, have been driven as a
criminal. Bo you wonder that I de
spise men?"
"That's wicked, daughter. Pray do
not talk like that. Your father was
man, and you have brothers and a son."
"Don't quote my father to me, mother
You know I would not own bim for
years before he died."
"Which was very unfilial of you, my
child. The girl that fails to honor her
father or mother need not expect pros
perity or happiness. Your father did
what the laws and customs of men em
powered bim to do, and be thought it
was all right. True, It was not right,
but his intentions were good. I cannot
bear to have you blame him."
"Well, mother, one thing is certain,
and that is that I shall sue for a divorce
at this sitting of the court. If I wait
till spring, John will have another
chance to rob me, for no man can be
punished for impoverishing his wife."
"And so you are to be a grass widow
O, Edna!"
"Don't reproach me, mother. I can
not bear It. I would rather be a dead
carcass than a grass widow, if I could
have my choice, but men do my choos
ing, and I cannot help myself."
Edna's application for a divorce upon
the ground of tbe habitual drunkenness
of her husband was followed tbe next
day by an application for a like decree
from John, tbe alleged cause being im
proper association with Mr. Handel, the
conscientious Christian missionary.
Each complainant prayed for tbe cus
tody of the children, and the lawyers
looked for a good harvest, and the pub
lic for an attractive arid disgraceful
scene in court.
To bo continued.
The "Blue Laws."
The famous "Blue Laws of Connecti
cut" have been brought to tbe light of
tbe boasted nineteenth century, and a
true copy of the same may be seen by
the curious at the office of tbe County
Clerk of Multnomah county. Tbe fol
lowing are some of the sections thereof:
Sec. 9. No food or lodging shall be
given to a Quaker, Adamite, or other
heretic.
Sec. 10. No one shall cross a river
without an authorized ferryman.
Sec. 11. No one shall run of a Sab
bath day, or walk in his garden, or
elsewhere, except reverently to and from
hurcli.
Sec. 12. No one shall travel, cook
victuals, make beds, sweep houses, cut
hair, or shave ou tbe Sabbath day.
Sec. 13. JSo woman shall kiss her
child ou tbe Sabbath or fasting day.
sec. 16. Whoever publishes a lie to
the prejudice of his neighbor, shall sit
in the stocks, or be whipped fifteen
tripes.
Sec. 17. Whoever wears clothes
trimmed with silver or bone lace, above
two shillings per yard, shall be pre
sented by the grand jurors, and the se
lectmen shall tax the offender at tbe
rate of 300 estate.
Sec. 18. Whoever brings cards or dice
nto this dominion, shall pay a fine of
5.
Sec 19. No one shall read common
prayer, keep Christmas or Saint Day,
make mince pies, dance, play cards, or
play on any other instrument of music
except tbe drum, trumpet, and the
Jew's barp.
See. 21. The selectmen, on- finding
children ignorant, may take tbem away
from tbe parents, aud put tbem Into
better nanus, at the expense of tbe
parents.
Sec. 22. A man that strikes his wife
shall pay a fine of 10. A woman that
strikes tier husband snail be punished
as the court directs.
Sec. 22. Married persons must live to
gether or be imprisoned.
Bee. 24. .Every male shall nave his
hair cut round according to a cap.
Good Axioms. Self-reliance Is the
main-spring of thrift and enterprise
Instead of waiting as Micawber did for
something to turn up, exert your own
energies, ana turn up something your
self.
If self-denial cost us nothing, it
would teach us little. A caustic writer
says:
"The poweror seir-delusion is heaven's
blessing to fools."
It needs a long bead to control a long
tongue.
If you pride yourself on saying wbat
you like, you will often bear wbat you
do not like.
How many thoughts we waste: how
much care aud anxiety we expend in
forming plans to meet emergencies that
never occur.
It is better to buy good counsel cheap
than repentance dear.
.Never be behind time, "l have no
ticed," said Napoleon, "that it was the
quarters of hours that decided the fates
of battles."
People may tell you of your being un
fit for some peculiar occupation in life,
but heed it not; whatsoever honest oc
cupation you follow with perseverance
and assiduity will be found lor you, and
will be your support in youth ana com
fort in old acre.
A good word is an easy oblation: but
not to speak ill requires only our silenoe
which costs us notning.
In the worldly struggle, passive en
durance Is no less useful than active en
ergy.
No bad aualitv or vice carries its ap
propriate punishment along with it
more surely than heartlessuess.
The critics have been attacking Anna
Dickinson attain, and she has been fir
ing back. We see no reason for giving
more weight to the judgment of a critic
than the opinion of one man, for that is
all it is, and amusement is entirely a
matter of taste, in which one person is
no more authorized to decide wbat will
please other auditors than he is to de
cide with what kind of a dinner they
should ha most pleased. It is entirely
absurd that the question of the merits of
Miss Dickinson as an actor should be
settled bv tbe newspaper critics, be
cause tbey constitute so insignificant a
proportion of the theater-going public.
We can conceive, however, that there is
one thing standing in the way of her
success. She goes on the stage, not as
an artist, but with asBerious and earnest
a purpose as sne carried to ine piatiorm
and public amusement, according to thi
prevailing taste, is not a thing of mor
als, as wltuess tbe Soldene. If she
could educate a new school of taste, in
sympathy with her own alms, she
might secure-wider approbation. -New
Age.
An oTpliantro rpnnrts that n. lad v "rons
drowned iu a previous edition of that
paper."
0TIE "WASHINGTON LETTEE.
To the Editor of the New Northwest :
We are still speculating upon tbe ex
tra session under tbe prolonged delay of
its call. The Senators bere are divided
in opinion as to its length, yet all con
cede Its shortness, should general legis
lation be avoided. Tbe debate on tbe
army bill need not necessarily be pro
longed, and yet the proposition to re
duce the army some 10,000 will meet
with bitter opposition, mueh as all
propositions to reduce have in tbe past.
When we came down to our present
small army, we were told in the most
pathetic tones that we would be swal
lowed up by somebody, the Mexicans,
the Indians, the English, and dear
knows who else, by means of our im
mense frontier and coast lines, putting
us at the mercy of every attacking party,
internal as well as external. But "we
still live," and our success in that line
leads some of our law-makers here to
say that tbe army must still further be
reduced, and especially so, since its
presence is no longer needed to preserve
the peace in tbe Southern States. Again,
some of the hot heads are insisting that
the Navy Department must again be
Investigated, in order to show where
the Philadelphia navy yard sales and
other moneys went. If these two prop
ositions get drawn into general debate,
your readers may expect a session run-
ing into August, as it is an impossi
bility for tbe forthcoming assemblage
of our nation's orators to fully ventilate
the issues inside of three months. In-
estlgation accomplished so little dur
ing the last two years and promises so
much less this summer, since there is
no important election to be controlled
by exposures of a defunct administra
tion, that we can conceive of no reason
for incurring the vast expense of another
Navy Department ventilation, but it
will give the Irrepressible politician an
pportunity to let off his buncombe
peecbes which he hires some penny a
liner to write for him, and which costs
Uncle Sam" ten cents a line to insert
in tbe Congressional Record. We have
grown so impatient over the huge hum
bug called "Congressional speeches,"
that really we are somewhat exercised
in mind at the great probability of hav
ing to endure a series of them during
the approaching warm weather, and we
cau but hope we may be spared the af
fliction, say from after July 1st.
THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT.
Akin to the heavy subject of speech-
making is that weighty matter called
the Washington monument. This
weighty structure has long been a dis
grace to our nation, so that we regret tbe
diversity of opinion which continues
among exports as to the unsuitability
of tbe foundations for bearing tbe addi
tional weight. The government engi
neers have recently reported adversely,
notwithstanding other army and civil
engineers reported and believe to the
contrary, hence we are as much at sea
in regard to what should be done with
tbe monument as we are in mind, after
listening to a three days' debate in Con
gress upon some political questlou. The
President very sensibly believes that it
is a matter which civil engineers can
determine much more intelligently and
correctly than these West Pointers,
whose knowledge of dirt is about on a
par with what they know of concrete
poultice pavements as they are laying
on our Pennsylvania Avenue. I eon-
cede that McCIellan studied the art of
handling dirt, its powers of resistance,
etc., while digging before an imaginary
foe of 150,000 muskets when there were
but 10,000. But his theories do not ap
ply to tbe foundations of the Washington
monument any more than they did to
the rail fence and a gopher hole bank,
behind which the volunteer soldier had
an ugly habit of hurtiug somebody.
The monument ought to be finished at
once. Its plain shaft will be one of the
most attractive features of the Capital,
and as it Is a national and not a city
duty to finish it, we hope prompt action
will be had for its completion.
THE GOVERNMENT PRINTER.
John D. Defrees, the new appointee,
bears his honors meekly. But be already
has experienced some of the afflictions
which render his office like that of the
executive departments, a burdensome
one Indeed. Scores of women call on
him daily, pleading with tears in their
eyes and most pitiful stories of their
poverty aud sufferings, for appointment
as folders, feeders, anything which
would give them bread. But as be is
powerless to aid, because his force must
also be reduced, he can do no more than
listen and rebuff. The recent discharges
from the Treasury furnished these un
fortunates to Mr. Defrees, and not until
tbe great sea of life shall have absorbed
them in some other channel, will they
cease to importune for government po
sltious.
THE JEWS.
The outrages upon the Jews in Ro'u-
manla greet President Hayes as they
did General Grant upon his assumption
of the exeoutive, and afford cause for
delegations of that sect to plead for our
interference. We need at the seat of
the Turkish war a minister like Wash
burne, who can care for the neutrals as
intelligently and successfully as be did
for tbe Germans in Paris, in tbe war of
1870, and for whioh Germany now ten
ders a $50,000 testimonial as a mark of
her gratitude to him for his labors in
behalf of her citizens. The Jews form
a large portiou of our community, and
having among them many men of high
est intellectual ability, they are quite
an element of strength. One of them,
Simon Wolf, Is our recorder of deeds,
and who went into the political field
last summer to stump for Mr. Hayes.
His lectures upon general and social
matters have given him a national rep
utation amougbis brethren, and stamped
him as a man of great intellectuality.
He is but one of several here, and tbey
are accomplishing more towards remov
ing prejudice from the minds of Gen
tiles than the whole mass of "old Clo"
men, who, by confining themselves to
petty shop-keeping, lead tbeunreflectlve
to think the Jew Is Incapable of eleva
tion. Felix.
Washington, D. C, May 4, 1877.
Superfluous Men.
I claim no originality for mv cantion.
It was suggested, of course, by Mrs.
Livermore's "Superfluous Women,"
but aside from the qualifyinsr adjective.
her "Superfluous Women" and my "Su-
peruuous Men" have nothing in com
mon. Tbe world would be the loser if those
superfluous women, mostly earnest,
belpml workers In tbe quiet walks of
life, should suddenly drop out of it,
while tbe men I have in mind are su
perfluous, not on account of their num
ber, but their character; they are super
fluous in the sense that tbey are useless,
a hindrance rather than a help to so
ciety, and the world would be better off
without tbem.
1. Of these I will mention first the
loafers. This is a large class compris
ing many grades, from the tramp to the
genteel loafer, who belongs to a club and
smokes tho best Jdavanas, but they all
have the same general characteristics.
They are lazy, they have no visible
means or support, and like the man
who, being brought before the police
court and interrogated as to his busi
ness, replied that bis wife was a dress
maker, a large number are dependent
on hard-working, self-sacrifieiug wives,
mothers and sisters. Tbey twirl their
canes and their mustaches, they gossip,
tuey nirt, iney expectorate, tuey staud
on tbe street corners, they frequent
drinking saloons, and all places of hieh
and low resort, they gamble, they bet,
uiey taiK pontics, iney vote oti, yes,
early and often), but their one distin
guishing characteristic is, tbeir aver
sion to any kind of honest industry.
According to all rules of political econ
omy, this large class of non-producers
are entirely superfluous. Tbev add
nothing to tbe wealth or well-being of
tue nation, duc stand outside all its
great needs and interests.
II. Habitual liquor-drinkers and con
firmed drunkards. While there is life
there is.hope, is doubtless true of drunk
ards as of invalids, but it seems to re
quire almost a miracle to eradicate tbe
appetite for strong drink when ouce
nrmly established. Think of the de
moralizing influence of this loathsome
mass of humanity, the misery of wives
and families, the poverty, tbe destitu
tion, the crime, tbe little children con
tinually brought into being by these
wretched fathers to inheret their mor
bid appetites and diseased constitutions.
3. Closely allied to these are tbe li
centious, the debauchees, the moral
lepers of community, whoso touch Is
pollution, whose breath is pestilential.
and who, besides their every day perni
cious infiueuce, are entailiuc upon fu
ture generations the horrible results of
their vicious lives.
If the first class mentioned are super
fluous, these are far worse. The first
may be compared to barnacles on the
ship of state the last two are leeches
drawing the life-blood from the social
body aud poisoning tbe whole circula
tion; taken together, they are tbe drags
and dregs of our civilization. Could
tbey all be suddenly blotted out of ex
istence by a series of dlscrimlnatimr
earthquakes or accidents, what an in
cubus would be removed from society.
how would the atmosphere be purified.
and progress and reform make eiant
strides towards a millennial age!
4. Again, there Is a multitude of
blatant pot-house politicians, dema
gogues and office-seekers, filibusters and
tbe like who are a superllulty in the
body politic. Could we be rid of them
also, we should speedily have a united
and prosperous people, an unexceptional
civil service, a model Republic, and a
moaern Utopia with all the modern
improvements, iucludine Impartial
Suffrage! Cor. Woman's Journal.
URUEITY TO UHILDREN. 1? riday a
teacher In one of the district schools in
this city was before Judge Pyper to an
swer for beating a pupil, a little boy ten
or twelve years of age. The evidence
was conclusive that tbe child bad been
cruelly flogged, his body exhibiting
several wens ana oruises mulcted by
the defendant. Tbe Justice fined the
teacher $25. The day for severe Hogging
in schools Is past, and fortunately for
the youth of the country, tbe Professor
Squeerses are seldom to be found in the
school-room. A few years ago a teacher
was considered by many parents as of
little account unless he exercised a good
deal of brutality in bis school; but hap
pily tne guaraians oi children, as a rule.
have learned that it is not necessary to
flog intelligence into a child. Salt
Lake Herald.
The stream of Mrs. A. T. Stewart's
benefactions, says the Church Union,
instead of ceasing to flow, goes onward,
and with increasing volume. Already
she bas made donations to fifty-two of
our local charities, ranging from $5UO to
2.500 and making an aggregate of 574.-
ouu, aud the intimation comes from
Judge Hilton that other charitable in
stitutions, if found deserving, will be
made recipients of her bounty, bince
the death of her husband Mrs. Stewart's
donations those of which the public
have been Informed have reached an
aggregate of about four hundred thous
and dollars.
A young man who mistook a bottle of
varnish for a oottie oi nair on, conciuaeu
that dancing was a frivolous amuse
ment, and kept away from a masquer
ade ball. But wbeu inquisitive friends
asked why he stayed away, be told an
unvarnished tale.
From tbe moment a man desires to
find the truth on one side rather than
another, it is all over with him as
philosopher. Harriet Martineau.
Ladies of the White House.
DOLT.T PAYNE MADISON.
Dolly Coles Payne, brought up in tho
strict tenets of the Society of Friends,
and married at 19 to Mr. John Todd, a
member of the same sect, in less than a
year after his death, and at the age of
23, married James Madison, and stepped
from poverty and Insignificance to
wealth and station. In ber luxurious
home in Virginia she learned how to
exercise generous hospitality and be
nevolence, and an indulgent husband
allowed her the means of gratifying
most of the flue instincts .of a noble
nature.
Wben Mr. Madison was appointed in
Mr. Jefferson's Cabinet, he removed with
his wife to Washington, and she fre
quently and kindly played the part of
lady of tbe White House before it be
came her own home; and, on ber hus
band's election to the Presidency, his
wife's presence in the White House was
hailed by the social world as a benefac
tion, and there probably never was a
person more generally loved, if some
times smiled at by the fastidious or su
percilious, withiu its walls.
With a little more elegance, there
would have been nothing more to desire
in Mrs. Madison. She had a certain
amount of tact, infinite good nature,
ready wit, and an unfailing memory of
names and faces, which, with her
warmth of heart, supplied many ele
ments of popularity, aud ber reign was
a joyous one. She filled the White
House with young people, putting all at
ease by her own ease, and kept up a
round of gayety, relaxing many of the
ceremoulous observances hitherto in
force there, and making some innova
tions. Very fond of dress, yet never ex
travagant in it, wearing usually a tur
ban and a gown of simple material, and
repairing time's losses with rogue, she
was rather a handsome woman, with
sparkling eyes, and a tall, although,
perhaps, too reduudant figure. She
was always a happy woman; aud when
adversity came she proved herself a
most noble one. When tbe British ap
proached the capital, she was one of the
last to leave tbe city, having lingered
to secure certain State papers and other
valuable articles of public property, to
the sacrifice of her own. She was re
fused admission at an inn where she re
quested shelter, with her suite, at the
instigation of those already sheltered
there people who bad, one and all,
shared her hospitality, but now chose
to hold her husband responsible for the
war and punish her; and, for a short
season, she was subjected to great hard
ship; but, after tbe British had finished
theirdastardly and disgraceful outrages,
she was one of the first to return. At
the conclusion of Mr. Madison's term,
she retired with him to their mountain
home iu Virginia, and there was the
comfort of his declining years. After
bis death she returned to Washington, a
place she loved, and there spent tbe last
twelve years of her life. Congress had
paid her a goodly sum of money as copy
wrlght on certain of her husbaud'3 pa
pers, aud voted her a seat on the floor of
tbe Senate; but she died In poverty, al
though honored to the last; and while
always to be seen with her splendid
green shawl, her turban, and her snuff
box, never forgetting her dignity or
her great-hearted cordiality. Chicago
jueager.
The Senses of Bees.
The senses of bees were the next sub-
ect of investigation, and we will givo
in brief tbe results which Huberreached.
The lenses of tlifi bees' eyes are not ad-
ustable; and, though they can see ac
curately to great distances, they seem
blind to objects close by. Jiee3 dart
down to the door of their hives with a
precision which is generally unerring;
but If, from any cause, they miss the
opening, they are obliged to rise in the
air, in order to take anotner ooserva-
tlou.
If bees hear which is a doubtfuL
question, the old-fashioned "tanging"
to the contrary tuey certainty near
only what affects tbeir welfare. Their
sense of taste is also far from perfect,
foul ditch water being often preferred
by tbem to limpid streams, or even
dew, and ill-smelling plants having
quite as much attraction as sweet ones;
it is the quantity, rattier tuan tne qual
ity of their food, for which tbey care.
They are also foud of the secretions of
tbe amphiaes, the much cattle and tne
ants.
Their sense of smell is very keen; tho
presence of honey they detect even in
tbe most carefully-concealed places.
Honey bees often, in scarce seasons, at
tack bumble bees ou their return from
fields laden with honey, and force them
to disgorge all they have collected. Its
presence in the honey bag must have
been detected by the sense of smell. The
seat of this smell is in the mouth; this
Huber determined by presenting suc
cessively to all parts of the body, on
camel's-balr pencils, odors especially
repugnant to them. When held near
the mouth, the bee started back as if
annoyed. On one occasion he mixed
honey with camphor, which they es
pecially dislike; they managed to sep
arate and remove all the honey, leaving
the camphor untouched.
The sense which seems to oe most per
fect in these little creatures is that of
touch, and that seems to reside wholly
in the antennce. Greetings, caresses,
and tbe communication of intentions
are always effected by one bee toward
another by crossing their antennce. It
must be remembered that no ngnc en
ters a hive under ordiuary circumstan
ces, ine oee, ' Bays.ri.uuer, cuuoiiuuw
its comb iu darkness; it pours its uoney
intn tho magazines, feeds its young,
iudees of tbeir ages and necessities, rec-
ognlzes us queeu, an ujr uiu ui iu an
tennce, Whicn are mucu less uuaineu ior
becoming acquainted with objects than
nur nanus, iuereiure, buuii wo uuu
irrant to this sense modifications and
perfections udbuowu iu uiu iuucu
man V Popular Science Monthly.
of
A Missouri aspirant to matrimony ad
vertises that he will give three mules to
any maiden who will wed him; which
gives rise to the question, "What re
spectable woman would want such a
four-iu-hand?"
The Boston papers tell of a love-sick
girl who married against her father's
wishes and went home after the first
conjugal tiff. "Kill the prodigal," ex
claimed the old gent; "the calf has re
turned." A parliamentary fowl the hen that
made a motion to lay ou the table.
Puck,